Latest news with #TimourAzhari
Japan Today
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
U.S. says it did not support Israel's Syria strikes; Sharaa vows to protect Druze
Members of Syrian security forces stand on a road in Sweida countryside, as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri By Timour Azhari and Humeyra Pamuk The United States said on Thursday it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria and had made clear its displeasure, while Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture his country and promised to protect its Druze minority. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze - part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel. The airstrikes blew up part of Syria's defence ministry and hit near the presidential palace. On Thursday, the Syrian state news agency said Israel carried out an airstrike on the vicinity of Syria's Sweida. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the United States condemned violence in Syria and was actively engaging all constituencies there and called on the Syrian government to lead the path forward. "Regarding Israel's intervention and activity is the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes," she said. "We are engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between the two sovereign states." Bruce declined to say whether Washington supports Israel carrying out such military operations when it deems necessary. "I won't speak to future conversations or past ones. What we're dealing with now is this particular episode, what was required, and I think we've been very clear about our displeasure, certainly that the President has, and we've worked very quickly to have it stopped," she said. The violence has underlined the challenges interim President Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and exerting centralised rule, despite his warming ties with the United States and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said there had been an attempt to "sabotage the ceasefire that was achieved yesterday with the contributions of our country," and that Israel had shown once again that it did not want peace or stability in either Gaza or Syria. "Israel, using the Druze as an excuse, has expanded its banditry to Syria," he told reporters. "Israel is a lawless, unruly, unprincipled, spoiled, and ruthless terrorist state." Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Egypt issued a joint statement reaffirming support for Syria's "security, unity, stability, and sovereignty", and rejecting all foreign interference in its affairs. They also welcomed the agreement reached to end the crisis in Sweida, emphasizing the necessity of its implementation to protect Syria and its unity. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the de-escalation of the conflict in Syria seemed to be continuing. "Syria agreed to draw back their troops that were in the area where that clash was ongoing and we continue to be very actively monitoring the situation," she said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late on Wednesday the United States had engaged all parties and steps had been agreed to end a "troubling and horrifying situation". Addressing Syrians on Thursday, Sharaa credited U.S., Arab and Turkish mediation for saving "the region from an uncertain fate", but accused Israel of seeking to "dismantle the unity of our people". He said Israel had "consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime". Sharaa, commander of an al-Qaida faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was "our priority" and rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an "external party". He also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people". One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in Sweida in south Syria on Thursday morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. Israel bombed Syria frequently under the rule of the ousted former president, Bashar al-Assad, and has struck the country repeatedly this year, describing its new leaders as barely disguised jihadists and saying it will not allow them to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarisation of a swathe of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida. He reiterated Israel's policy to protect the Druze. Syria had sent "its army south of Damascus into an area that was supposed to remain demilitarized, and it began massacring Druze. This was something we could not accept in any way", he said, adding: "It is a ceasefire achieved through strength." The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 254 dead in four days of fighting, among them medical personnel, women and children. FIELD EXECUTIONS The network's head Fadel Abdulghany told Reuters the figure included cases of field executions by both sides, Syrians killed by Israeli strikes and others killed in clashes but that it would take time to break down the figures for each category. A Sweida resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name Amer for fear of reprisals, shared a video of his neighbours slain in their home. It showed a lifeless man in a chair, an elderly man with a gunshot wound to his right temple on the floor and a younger man, face down in a pool of blood. Overnight, government troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes. In a worrying development, a military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce only applied to government forces. The Bedouins, Sunni Muslim farmers who have long-standing frictions with the Druze, were seeking to free detained colleagues, he told Reuters. A round of fighting between the Bedouins and Druze earlier this week prompted the government to send troops to Sweida to quell the fighting, but the violence then grew until a ceasefire was declared. Amid reports of revenge attacks on Bedouin on Thursday, leading Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari called for peaceful Bedouin tribes to be respected and not harmed. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
The Star
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
No Iranian attack detected at any US base other than Qatar, US military official says
BEIRUT (Reuters) -There was no Iranian attack detected at any U.S. military base other than in Qatar, a U.S. military official told Reuters on Monday. There was no impact on the U.S. Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the official said. Military sources told Reuters on Monday that air defense systems were activated in the U.S. Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq for fear of a potential attack. (Reporting by Timour Azhari, writing by Jaidaa Taha, editing by Chris Reese)
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Syria expects first transfer with U.S. bank 'within weeks', governor says
By Timour Azhari DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria expects to have its first transaction with a U.S. bank "in a matter of weeks", Syrian central bank governor Abdelkader Husriyeh said on Thursday, a day after a high-level meeting between Syrian and U.S. commercial banks. The resumption of transfers between Syrian and U.S. banks would be a key milestone in the push by Syria's new rulers to reintegrate the country into the global financial system after 14 years of civil war. Husriyeh on Wednesday held a virtual conference bringing together Syrian banks, several U.S. banks and U.S. officials, including Washington's Syria Envoy Thomas Barrack, with the aim of speeding up the reconnection of Syria's banking system to the global financial system. This follows U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement in May that all sanctions on Syria would be lifted. That has been followed up with executive orders formally lifting some of the measures. Syria's reintegration into the global financial system would be a major step towards enabling the kind of large financial transactions needed to kickstart its reconstruction and economic activity, and help rein in a highly informal, cash-based economy. Husriyeh extended a formal invitation to U.S. banks to re-establish correspondent banking ties following the ouster of former Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose crackdown on 2011 protests resulted in Western countries imposing one of the world's strictest sanctions regimes. "We have two clear targets: have U.S. banks set up representative offices in Syria and have transactions resume between Syrian and American banks. I think the latter can happen in a matter of weeks," Husriyeh told Reuters. Among the banks invited to Wednesday's conference were JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and CitiBank, though it was not immediately clear who attended.
Time of India
05-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Gulf Arab telecos compete for Syria fibre optic project
By Timour Azhari DAMASCUS: Syria's government is in talks with regional telecoms companies Zain, Etisalat , STC and Ooredoo for a roughly $300 million project to develop the country's fibre optic communications network, a senior Syrian official and a second official said. The talks with the Gulf Arab companies are part of growing global investor interest in Syria 's economy following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement last month that Washington would lift Syria sanctions. The Syrian project, dubbed SilkLink, aims to rapidly overhaul outdated communications infrastructure and set the country up as a potential "north-south and west-east digital corridor," the telecommunications ministry said. Saudi Arabia's STC declined to comment. Qatar's Ooreedo, the UAE's Etisalat and Kuwait's Zain did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The deadline to submit proposals for the project is June 10. The two officials declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the talks. After 14 years of civil war and decades of Western sanctions, Syria's infrastructure shortfalls include some of the world's worst internet connectivity. It means many users are forced to use costly mobile data instead of a wireless connection to get basic tasks done online. Syria's new rulers aim to make rapid progress in improving public services almost six months after they ousted former strongman Bashar al-Assad. Their efforts have included signing last week a $7 billion power memorandum of understanding with a consortium of companies led by Qatar's UCC Holding to develop 5,000 megawatts of electricity. Syria also signed an $800 million MOU in May with DP World to develop Tartous port, two weeks after signing a 30-year deal with French shipping and logistics group CMA CGM that includes building a new berth at Latakia port.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Exclusive-US gives nod to Syria to bring foreign jihadist ex-rebels into army
By Timour Azhari and Suleiman Al-Khalidi DAMASCUS/AMMAN (Reuters) -The United States has given its blessing to a plan by Syria's new leadership to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadist former rebel fighters into the national army, provided that it does so transparently, President Donald Trump's envoy said. Three Syrian defence officials said that under the plan, some 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uyghurs from China and neighbouring countries, would join a newly-formed unit, the 84th Syrian army division, which would also include Syrians. Asked by Reuters in Damascus whether Washington approved the integration of foreign fighters into Syria's new military, Thomas Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who was named Trump's special envoy to Syria last month, said: "I would say there is an understanding, with transparency." He said it was better to keep the fighters, many of whom are "very loyal" to Syria's new administration, within a state project than to exclude them. The fate of foreigners who joined Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels during the 13-year war between rebel groups and President Bashar al-Assad has been one of the most fraught issues hindering a rapprochement with the West since HTS, a one-time offshoot of al Qaeda, toppled Assad and took power last year. At least until early May, the United States had been demanding the new leadership broadly exclude foreign fighters from the security forces. But Washington's approach to Syria has changed sharply since Trump toured the Middle East last month. Trump agreed to lift Assad-era sanctions on Syria, met Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh and named Barrack, a close friend, as his special envoy. Two sources close to the Syrian defence ministry told Reuters that Sharaa and his circle had been arguing to Western interlocutors that bringing foreign fighters into the army would be less of a security risk than abandoning them, which could drive them into the orbit of al Qaeda or Islamic State. The U.S. State Department and a Syrian government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. CHINESE CONCERNS Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners joined Syria's rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against Assad, who was himself aided by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias. Some fighters formed their own factions, while others joined established groups such as Islamic State, which briefly declared a caliphate in swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed by an array of forces backed both by the United States and Iran. Foreign fighters within HTS earned a reputation as loyal, disciplined and experienced militants, and formed the backbone of the group's elite so-called suicide units. They fought against Islamic State and against other wings of al Qaeda from 2016, when HTS broke away from the group founded by Osama bin Laden. The Uyghur fighters from China and Central Asia are members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a group designated as terrorists by Beijing. A Syrian official and a foreign diplomat said China had sought to have the group's influence in Syria restricted. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: "China hopes that Syria will oppose all forms of terrorism and extremist forces in response to the concerns of the international community." Osman Bughra, a TIP political official, told Reuters in a written statement that the group had officially dissolved and integrated into the Syrian army. "At present, the group operates entirely under the authority of the Ministry of Defence, adheres to national policy, and maintains no affiliations with external entities or groups," he said. In December, the appointment of a handful of foreign jihadists who were part of HTS's senior leadership to top military posts had alarmed Western governments, raising concerns over the direction of Syria's new Islamist leadership. Demands to freeze the appointments and expel rank-and-file foreign fighters became a key point of contention with Washington and other Western countries up until the week of Trump's landmark meeting with Sharaa. Sharaa has said that foreign fighters and their families may be granted Syrian citizenship due to their role in fighting Assad. Abbas Sharifa, a Damascus-based expert on jihadist groups, said the fighters being included in the army had shown loyalty to Syria's leadership and were "ideologically filtered." But "if you abandon them they become prey to ISIS or other radical groups" he said.
